Daily Current affairs for 8th April 2018 ( English)

2.     Madhubani railway station got complete makeover with Mithila paintings. The makeover project was unique initiative of Indian Railways to experiment with local artists voluntarily painting works in short span of two months. More than 225 artists, 80% of them women, volunteered to paint station free of cost. The total wall area of railway station covering area more than 14,000 sq ft has been fully painted with various themes under traditional Mithila painting style.

3.     The two-day Assam Spring Festival was held at Manas National Park organised by Indian Weavers’ Association and Swankar Mithinga Onsai Afat, an association of reformed poachers in Manas. The aim of the festival was to promote local food and culture of fringe villagers. It also attempted to create model of alternative livelihood through food, handloom and culture.

4.     Uttarakhand’s second Mega Food Park in Udham Singh Nagar district inaugurated by Union Food Processing Industries Minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this Mega Food Park will have a Multi-Purpose Cold Storage, Aseptic Brick Filling Line, Dry Warehouse, Fruit & Vegetable Processing Line, Quality Control & Food Testing Lab and other related food processing facilities. This Mega Food Park will benefit around 25000 farmers in Udham Singh Nagar district as well as neighbouring districts of Nainital, Garhwal, Almora and Champawat. Besides, it will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5000 persons. Uttarakhand’s first Mega Food Park is located at Haridwar and has already become operational.

5.     Kerala State Government will start a ‘community radio’ to update farmers about the latest developments in the sector in May-June 2018 under the Farm Information Bureau (FIB) of the Kerala State’s Agriculture Department. This ‘community radio’ will serve as a platform to provide range of information to farmers including climate change and environment issues, tips and information on various aspects of agriculture and agrarian crisis and alerts. This will be the first such community radio  in India, under Government initiative to get connected with the farming community.The farm radio will start broadcast from Kuttanad in Alappuzha district of Kerala and will serve farmers in a 20 square kilometre radius in the region. Kuttanand was once popularly known as the ‘rice bowl of Kerala.

2.     With introduction of sugar levy, UK joins few countries, including Mexico, France and Norway that have introduced similar fat taxes. The Soft Drinks Industry Levy also known as soft drinks sugar tax or sin tax or sugar tax came into force in United Kingdom as part of government’s plan to combat obesity and sugar related disease. The Soft Drinks Industry Levy was announced in 2016. It is based on levels of sugar in drinks, with most sugary drinks paying highest tax. Drinks containing 5 grams of sugar per 100ml taxed are taxed at 18 pence per litre, and those with more than 5 grams per 100ml taxed at 24 pence per litre.

2.     The Reserve Bank of India switched back to gross domestic product (GDP) model from the gross value added (GVA) methodology to provide its estimate of economic activity in the country. The switch to GDP is mainly to conform to international standards and global best practices. The GVA methodology gives picture of state of economic activity from producers’ side or supply side whereas the GDP model gives picture from consumer’s side or demand perspective. Government had started analysing growth estimates using GVA methodology from January 2015 and had also changed the base year to 2018 from January 2018.